State Briefs 4/29/08

Wednesday

Apr 30, 2008 at 12:01 AMApr 30, 2008 at 3:36 PM

State Briefs 4/29/08

No violence after threats of day being ‘bloodier than Columbine’

BERWYN – Monday’s school day passed without incident after District 201 officials beefed up police presence following threats circulated via text and MySpace messages warning that April 28 at Morton East and West high schools would be “bloodier than Columbine.”

Officials received word of the threats at about 6 a.m. Monday from Berwyn and Cicero police, who received calls from parents whose children had been sent the menacing message.

“Parents called police saying students received threats ... (that) essentially said ‘don’t go to school on April 28, it’s going to be bloodier than Columbine,’” said District 201 and Cicero police spokesman Dan Proft.

On April 20, 1999, two students brought guns to school and opened fire at Columbine High School in Colorado, killing 12 students and a teacher and injuring dozens of others, before killing themselves.

Still, officials chose not to cancel school before it began in the morning because they did not have a full understanding of the threat until 9:30 a.m., Proft said.

If concerned, parents were permitted to pick their children up and take them out of school as an excused absence.

Officials increased the number of Berwyn and Cicero police and canine units patrolling the schools and eliminated use of hall passes to keep students in classroom during classes. Administrators also canceled after-school extracurricular activities to allow for a locker search Monday afternoon, Proft said.

Police and administrators were working Monday with students who received the threat to trace the message back to its origin, Proft said.

The precautions were taken at Morton East in Cicero and Morton West in Berwyn, where students received the threats, but not at District 201’s other campuses, the Freshman Center and Alternative School, both in Cicero.

Suburban Life Publications

Second cougar sighting closes park

STICKNEY – Ridgeland Avenue Park is closed until further notice because of the second possible cougar sighting in six days reported to police about 2:30 a.m. Sunday.

Stickney Police Chief Gary Dunow said a group of adults and children reported a large, tan cat behind the fence line of the 43rd Street Metropolitan Water Reclamation Plant of Greater Chicago.

“At the present time, we are making arrangements with Cook County (to use a) helicopter with thermal imaging ... to put validity behind the sightings or put it to rest,” Dunow said.

Stickney Township animal control found a footprint that was analyzed, but the print was inconclusive.

Dunow said the cat has only been reported in the Metropolitan Water Reclamation Plant’s property along the south side fence line of the park.

Police officials finished investigating the first report of a possible cougar in the Stickney area April 23. A thermal scan was conducted when officials flew a helicopter over the area to check for a large cat. The scan is able to detect a heat source on the ground.

A footprint was also found in the vicinity of the last sighting, but Brookfield Zoo officials were unable to conclude if a cougar left that print.

Suburban Life Publications

Widow alleges police unprepared for crisis

LACON — A lawsuit filed Monday in the shooting death of a Lacon man a year ago alleges two police agencies failed to prepare for crisis situations that could result in “suicide by cop.”

Scott Sheets Jr., 23, was shot twice by Marshall County Sheriff’s Deputy Wayne Strawn in a roadside confrontation south of Lacon on April 29, 2007. He was shot after a nearly three-hour episode that began when family members told police he was suicidal.

The four-count wrongful death suit was filed by Peoria attorney Daniel Cusack for Bryndy Sheets, Scott Sheets’ widow and estate administrator. Named as defendants are not only Strawn and the county, but also the city of Lacon and part-time officer Richard Weers, who was also at the scene and had been the first police officer contacted.

“Suicide by cop is a well-known syndrome throughout the United States, and there are certain things you do and don’t do in that situation,” Cusack said in a telephone interview. “This was what is called a failed intervention. There were points of intervention that could have and should have been acted on before the tragic scene in the field.”

Sheets was shot along Illinois Route 26 that afternoon after an episode that included his driving at high speed on that road and through a crop field before stopping. Family members who witnessed the shooting screamed “Murderer!” at Strawn, according to police reports, and have maintained the shooting was not justified.

The suit seeks damages exceeding $50,000, but that is simply a benchmark for a category of civil suit.

Journal Star, Peoria

Ownership trial in animal cruelty case cut short

CAPRON – Scheduling conflicts cut short a hearing Tuesday to determine ownership of animals seized from a Capron home.

Nearly 60 animals, including 30 dogs, were taken from Colin and Marie Slater’s rural Capron home last week by Boone County Animal Services. The Slaters were each charged with three counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty and three counts of felony animal cruelty.

Bruce Probst, a Belvidere veterinarian, and Becky Tobin, assistant county administrator, each testified about the conditions of the Slater’s farm and animals.